Ouch.
Wayne Rooney hasn’t had the best of times lately, for reasons we’re all well aware of and don’t need to get into here. And things didn’t get much better for the former Manchester United and England captain on Saturday afternoon.
He started for Everton in their Premier League game against Bournemouth. The home side desperately needed a win after a poor run of form. Everton had won just two of their previous 10 league games before the match at Goodison Park, scoring just four goals. Rooney was the only Toffee to find the back of the net this season in the Premier League, and would have loved a goal to put his name back in the news for positive reasons.
One of those things occurred on Saturday afternoon.
Everton recorded a 2-1 victory over the Cherries, a much needed win after a poor run of form. The pressure had been on Ronald Koeman after the club spent over £150m on new players in the summer.
Rooney’s afternoon wasn’t as enjoyable.
The forward was levelled with an elbow in the first-half. Rooney challenged for a cross in the Bournemouth penalty area, but ended up getting a smack of Simon Francis’ elbow.
He was left bloody and furious with the referee, who didn’t punish the Bournemouth defender for the elbow.
Here’s the incident:
And here’s how it left Rooney:
Ouch.
To add insult to injury, Rooney was substituted off for Oumar Niasse with 35 minutes to play.
Niasse didn’t even have a squad number for Everton last season, as Koeman told him he wasn’t part of his plans and omitted him from the first-team squad before sending him on-loan to Hull City.
He scored twice on Saturday to win the game for the Toffees, and relieve the considerable pressure on his manager.
